1. Technical Field
This disclosure relates to mobile sensor and data collection devices, in general, and in particular, to expandable spheres carrying instrument payloads for data collection that are rolled to the destinations at which data is to be collected.
2. Related Art
Access to remote locations in the solar system or to dangerous places here on Earth can be limited due to geographical, chemical, atmospheric or other constraints. Investigators are often interested in exploring or investigating areas that are located in remote holes, valleys or craters with steeply sloping sides. For example, shadowed deep craters (known as “cold traps”) that exist on other planets, e.g., Mars and our own moon, are often places where water may exist, but are difficult to reach because of their rugged, deeply sloping sides. Such conditions make it difficult to acquire the desired data from such locations because it is difficult for either manned or unmanned vehicles to navigate the approaches to them.
Current solutions in space exploration include unmanned, mobile “rovers” and “landers” that are designed to be deployed to remote locations on other planets. Terrestrial exploration operations also rely on remotely operated roving or flying vehicles. However, in planetary exploration, it can be very difficult to get a lander or a rover to a location of interest, such as in the bottom of a crater or deep within a steep-walled canyon, due to the ruggedness and slope of the terrain. Current vehicles have extreme difficulty navigating these slopes without turning over, getting stuck, or sliding out of control. Also, once landed on a remote planet, landers cannot move to gather information that might lie out of range, and conventional rovers need large power sources for travelling to distant locations and must actively navigate around obstacles that could damage them.
Even in many terrestrial areas, access for remote reconnaissance vehicles can also be severely limited by steep slopes and long drives, and it is not cost-effective to send out many such vehicles at once to quickly scan a large area. Aerial vehicles can solve some of the accessibility problems, but cannot collect data directly on the surface of the Earth, and there are some places that aircraft cannot fly easily or where ground cover makes it difficult to see targets of interest. Landing such aircraft at the location may also be too risky. Both methods require powered movement, and can be large and hard to store.
Accordingly, a need exists for a delivery vehicle for deploying sensor and data collection devices to areas that are located in remote holes, valleys or craters with steeply sloping sides that is reliable, yet simple to make and use, that uses gravity as its primary motive force, and that is sufficiently inexpensive as to enable several sensor and data collection devices to be deployed in a given target area simultaneously and cost effectively.